Journey to a Family

We thought we would begin our blog, well, at the beginning.......
In the beginning God created.....no, no not that far back but yes, He did!
Once upon a time.....try again,
In a Galaxy far, far away......oh, puhleeez,
Ok, Ok.....Patrick and Karen were married 3 years and 9 months ago. Several years later, they felt that God wanted them to add dimension to their amazing adventure and thus, this adoption journey began, the kitzkazventure.

JULY - started the process at the end of the month by contacting Adoption Ark adopt. agency

AUGUST - took a quick trip at the beginning of the month through Louisville and then Missouri for our fingerprint applications, INS application, and birth certificates.
14th- our first homestudy

SEPTEMBER -
3rd - second home study
Continued preparation of Dossier.....notarizations, certifications, and apostilles. More fingerprints. More paperwork.

OCTOBER - Finish up Dossier, Send Dossier to AA. The waiting begins, or so we thought.....



NOVEMBER -
21st - we received notification that our Dossier had been approved and sent to Kaz.
30th - First ministry for approval

DECEMBER -

New Year's Eve - started stripping wall paper for the kid's room!

JANUARY -
Painted the kids room a fun harvest yellow color. Should look perfect with our Northwoods/moose/bear/lodge theme! We used metallic based paint so that the kids can use magnets on the wall. It took some work but we have magnets on the wall!


Here are pictures of the room.......notice the magnets on the wall on this last one! cool!

3rd - Second ministry for approval
11th - Notified that we will be going to the Karaganda region. More paperwork.
22nd - received our Letter of Invitation from Dzezkazgan. Our case worker asked us to be ready to travel at the end of the month! We applied for visas and began to make arrangements.
31st - received visas from Kaz embassy! We are official! Received our ticket confirmation from the travel agent confirming our flights to Almaty, Kaz on Feb. 9th.

As you can see, from start to travel has only been a little more than 6.5 months. God has been good and given us a smooth process so far. We are just going to consider our wee one(s) preemies since we haven't even been given 9 months! We can't say that this speedy process hasn't given us the deer in the headlight look but as we all know Patrick's motto by heart, Things will happen when they are supposed to happen!

We will arrive in Almaty on the 11th via that large international hub of Memphis, TN and Amersterdam, Holland! We will meet our coordinator who will arrange our final flight to Dzez to meet our little one(s).

Our trip will be for 6-8 weeks. We look forward to immersing ourselves in this exciting culture as we become a family. We have joined a Yahoo group of adoptive families who have brought their children home from the same orphanage that we will visit. They already feel like a second family and the information that they have provided will be invaluable for us newbies. Stay tuned for the kitzkazventure daily saga!